Busted Bones
by Acathla
Summary: Tempe gets busted and Booth is caught in the middle...  TempeAngela FEMSLASH pairing!
1. Chapter 1

**Busted Bones ** **By Acathla** **Chapter One**

"**Angela, come on don't do this! Angela, at least open the door and talk to me!"** Dr. Temperance Brennan, world famous Forensic Anthropologist and NY Times Best Selling Author, had just gotten back from a week long trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico with FBI Agent Seely Booth to identify the bones of a missing desert extremist. Nothing really out of the ordinary for Dr. Brennan since identifying bones was what she was very good at.

As the resident Forensic Anthropologist at the renowned Jeffersonian Institute in Washington DC, Brennan was routinely paired up to work with the FBI to identify skeletons. Her main contact in the FBI was Special Agent Seely Booth. So it was nothing new to have to fly out to another state to identify bones for local law enforcement. And normally, these trips lasted anywhere from a few days to a week depending on how long it took her to identify the body and the cause of death and to determine if it was homicide or not. These trips were just business and she tolerated them at best, hated them at worst. But for the last six months or so she'd had someone to come back home to, someone who would hold her as she fell asleep and let the horrors of what she saw melt away.

Brennan did a very good job of hiding the effects of what she saw from the rest of the world. To the casual observer it would seem she wasn't even affected by the things she saw everyday. The bodies that were reduced to bones and organs (and sometimes not even organs) that used to be a living breathing person. A person with hopes, dreams, faults...a person who more often than not did not welcome death. Brennan connected with the person by examining their bones and the mask she used allowed her to remain objective and do her job. But that didn't mean it didn't affect her. And a few months ago, she'd found the one person who could understand what she saw everyday and still see that there were lasting effects. Angela Montenegro, her co worker at the Jeffersonian who was more an artist than a scientist, had finally gotten through the defenses that Brennan always put up to avoid falling in love.

Six months, give or take, of more happiness than Brennan ever thought was possible had been her reward for letting her defenses drop long enough to let Angela in. And it was the best time of her life, she'd shown Angela in everyway she knew how that she loved her and it seemed as though Angela loved her too. They'd never said the words but the actions spoke loudly enough for even someone as dense in matters that don't deal with science as Brennan is to hear.

And now, for some unknown reason, Brennan was standing outside her lover's apartment confused but determined to get an explanation. Brennan had returned from her trip to Santa Fe with Booth only to be told by the director of the Jeffersonian that Angela Montenegro had resigned the day before. Brennan had read the resignation letter at least three times before it sank in. Angela had resigned. She'd left the Jeffersonian and was not giving the usual two week notice, just one day.

Once it had truly sunk in, Brennan had raced out of the Jeffersonian and straight to her car. The short drive to her lover's apartment building was spent trying to puzzle out Angela's motivation for resigning. The only logical conclusion she could think of was that Angela was no longer comfortable working there. Which led to the question, was it the place or was it her? Was Brennan the real reason she'd quit? Her insecurities began to plague Brennan as she jumped from one conclusion to another until she had convinced herself that Angela didn't love her and this was her way of breaking up with her. Which of course led Brennan to determine that if Angela was going to end their relationship she deserved to hear it from her. Brennan demanded an explanation, a logical reason that she could point to in the future when she asked herself why she was sleeping alone again.

So here she was, knocking quite loudly and screaming even louder, demanding that Angela open the door so they could talk. Brennan honestly didn't know what had precipitated the break up, if that's what this was, but she was determined to find out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On the other side of the door that was taking the brunt of the abuse of Brennan's fist, Angela lay on her bed, crying. This was too much for her to take. It was bad enough that Brennan had been called to New Mexico during the week of their six month anniversary but when Angela had called her shortly after midnight to wish her a happy anniversary, she'd gotten a very rude awakening.

"**Bones' phone, Booth speaking,"** the greeting came over the cell phone line to the shock of the caller. Angela hadn't been expecting Booth to answer her lover's cell phone shortly after midnight. She knew it was late but she never under any circumstances let anyone else answer her cell.

"**Booth, it's Angela put her on."** Angela decided not to let it get to her that she had to go through Booth to talk to her girlfriend but if that's what it took...

"**She's uh... she's not available Angela."** The tone in Booth's voice suggested there was something he didn't want to disclose. Angela didn't care she wanted to speak to Brennan.

"**What do you mean not available? Where is she?"**

"**Um...I honestly don't know. One minute she's having a drink with me at the bar and the next she's dancing with this very hot local woman and before I know it they walk out together. Did you know that Bones was into women?"** Like everyone else who knew them, Booth had no idea that Angela was dating Brennan.

"**Um...yeah I knew. What do you mean she left with some local woman?"**

"**Just what I said. She seemed like a willing participant when she left with her, kissing her and holding on to her. Gotta say, never thought Bones had it in her."**

Angela couldn't believe her ears. Her girlfriend had done what? Angela actually felt her heart break. She didn't know what else to say so she just thanked Booth for telling her then hung up the phone. She knew Booth didn't know about her relationship with Brennan.

The next day, Angela handed in her letter of resignation. She knew she'd never be able to work with Brennan after what she'd learned. The fact that Brennan hadn't called her once the whole trip said more than anything else that she was the only one who was in love in this relationship and that the feelings she thought Brennan had for her were just wishful thinking on her part.

Angela hadn't really thought about what she would do after she quit she just knew she couldn't stay there now. She couldn't let Brennan see the damage she'd caused all because she wanted to get drunk.

Angela listened as Brennan continued to bang on her door and beg to be let inside. Angela almost gave in until she remembered what Booth had told her. Angela let Brennan bang on her door for three hours before she finally gave up on the hope she'd been harboring that Brennan would soon tire and walk away. When she finally realized Brennan wasn't going to just go away, Angela had no choice but to call Booth and have him remove Brennan. It was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do but the alternative was to open the door and let Brennan talk her way out of the situation.

Chapter 2


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

A confused but willing to help Booth arrived at Angela's apartment to find Brennan still pounding on the door but no longer saying anything.

Brennan looked at Booth as he arrived. "**Booth, what are you doing here?"** Brennan's voice was a little hoarse thanks to all the yelling she did earlier.

Booth didn't know how to explain without making things worse but he also knew that Brennan didn't need lies or pretty words right now. "**She asked me to remove you from her building Bones. Whatever is going on between you two, I don't need to know about it, I just know that she told me to tell you to leave and give her some time and space."**

Brennan took a moment to think about that before realizing that nothing would be accomplished by standing in the hall and banging on the door. All she'd managed to do was hurt her hand and force her lover to call the FBI on her. Granted it was just Booth but the symbolism of it all was significant. She lowered her head in defeat.

"**Ok Booth. I'll leave."** Brennan turned to go and Booth followed her. Booth invited her to Wong Foo's for a drink and a chat and Brennan accepted.

They drove separately to Wong Foo's and sat in a booth as Sid got their drinks and some food for them. No one ever ordered off the menu here, Sid always knew what you needed.

"**So,"** Booth began as they waited for their food, "**you wanna talk about why Angela wasn't opening the door?"**

Brennan was silent for a bit, thinking about how much to reveal and then she decided that if she couldn't trust Booth then who could she trust. She knew what she was about to tell him would change how he saw her but it was a risk that she was going to have to take, she didn't want to keep it all inside anymore. Brennan began at the beginning, when her relationship with Angela began and explained the last six months. When she got to the recent trip to New Mexico and what she discovered when she got back, Booth suddenly realized that he'd had a hand in the whole mess.

As Brennan wrapped it up she noticed Booth shifting uncomfortably in his seat. "**What? You know something don't you? Tell me." **

"**All I know is that she called you two nights ago and I answered your phone because you forgot it at the bar."**

"**Oh my God, Booth what did you tell her?"** Brennan suddenly realized that what had happened that night could be seen in a different light by someone who didn't know the circumstances behind it all.

Booth shifted again under Brennan's intent gaze, he was learning that he'd made some kind of error and was soon about to pay for it. "**I told her that you weren't available and that I'd seen you leave the bar with some woman that you'd been dancing with." **

"**What else did you tell her you saw?"**

"**I might have implied that you had been...kissing said woman and leaning really close and looking cozy."** Booth closed his eyes and flinched, waiting for Brennan to lash out and hurt him, he'd seen her do worse in response to lesser affronts.

Brennan thought back to that night and remembered kissing that woman. But that hadn't meant anything, she was proving a point to the woman, Lisa, about how different kissing a woman was to kissing a man. Lisa was straight but curious and Brennan had been drawn into the conversation somehow and one thing led to another and they'd kissed. But that was all that had happened. Lisa had helped her to her car because she'd had mildly sprained her ankle in the parking lot of the bar and she'd driven to her hotel and fell into her bed—alone—and fell fast asleep.

Brennan had never even given Lisa a second thought after that night. The implications of what Booth had seen and then told Angela hit Brennan hard and, overwhelmed by what it meant, her head crashed into the table and just rested there. "**Oh my god, this is really bad." **

Booth just watched his friend as she sat there with her head on the table. He knew he'd already done more than enough but that didn't stop him from wishing he could fix the situation between the two women he'd come to care about like sisters.

TBC...


End file.
